John reminisced about the changes he had seen over the years at the Yarmouth Stores Ltd company as well as in Southside Street.

In November he told The Herald: “It’s changed dramatically in my time. I mean first off, years and years ago they used to have a lot of branches all over the country, on sea ports, 15, 16 of them. As the lease expired on all the rest of them and the fishing industry died, they closed them down.

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“This one survived, probably because they own the building, along with the one in Lowestoft and Yarmouth. So really we’re out on a limb down here.

“I’ve seen everyone disappear down here. The street is unrecognisable. I’m the only person I can remember round here now from when I joined there’s nobody else I remember still working down here in my days at the store.

Kitchen area of 25 Southside Street (Image: Huntley & Partners)

“It is (the store) literally just about as it was when it opened in 1898 in the shop, and people love that, we’re getting a bit like a museum, you just don’t see this anymore. It’s dying everywhere and these places are disappearing, people love looking back and thinking how it used to be.”

A petition was set up by the owner of SaltyJobs to keep the shop open but it only garnered 226 signatures.

The Yarmouth Stores shelves, bare for the first time in 119 years (Image: Huntley & Partners)

Signatories included Mark Giles Woodman who wrote: “

“That’s sad! I still have a jacket I bought there 20 years ago” while Pat Hammond added: “Such a loss. Always excellent service and such a part of the Barbican for so many years.”

"Thank you and goodbye..." (Image: Penny Cross)

However, the outcome and closure was inevitable.

Simon Palmer, CEO of Yarmouth Stores Ltd, based in Great Yarmouth, told The Herald: “It is with deep regret that our shop in Plymouth has been forced to close.

“Over the past five years trading has been extremely difficult with the Knights Family supporting the store financially – the cost of rates and drop in footfall through the shop have led to a significant decline in trading which has left the business with no choice but to close the store.

Alley running between main building and rear tenement building (Image: Huntley & Partners)

“John Paskins has been with the business for over 40 years and alongside his loyal team Lois and Susan they have continued to open the doors and provide a fantastic service to the local community down on the quay.

“On behalf of Yarmouth Stores and the Knights family we would like to go on record to thank John and the team and also to the loyal customers down in Plymouth.”

The building is now on the market and commercial estate agents Huntley and Partners have listed it at £475,000.

A spokesman for the firm noted how it was a “very rare” opportunity to purchase a freehold on Southside Street.

The building is described as “well presented with double- fronted ground floor retail shop, extensive storage and stockroom”

The listing notes it is “ripe for redevelopment (subject to any planning consents)” having been made “vacant after 40 years trading”.

Rooftop space at 25 Southside Street (Image: Huntley & Partners)

The listing highlights how the property is “most substantial and deceptively large as it extends back from Southside Street a considerable distance.

“The building is terraced and believed to be at least 150 years old and appears to be of traditional style of construction with rendered elevations extending over four floors to the front, and with an extensive storage building also extending over four floors to the rear.

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“This rear area is internally connected as well as having a separate self-contained entrance off Southside Street.

Agents selling the "rare and substantial retail and residential property" say it is "ripe for further redevelopment" (Image: Penny Cross)

“Two staircases serve these upper floors. The rooms above the main front shop form what was originally designed as a five roomed self-contained flat but has not been used for some time, whilst the rear tenement building has, until recently, been used purely for storage and ancillary space to the main shop.

“The building is therefore ripe for redevelopment and refurbishment possibly to extend retail space as well as residential accommodation, subject of course as usual to any necessary planning consents.”